Enric Mas, the redemption and liberation of the once ‘eternal aspirant’

The Spanish cyclist Enric Mas (Movistar Team) already has his ‘Grande’, an achievement that comes at the age of 31 after four podiums in La Vuelta, years in which he was required to make the final leap, criticism for his lack of aggressiveness and episodes of injuries, fear and doubts that ended up turning his career into a permanent search for what he finally found this Sunday in Madrid, a victory in the 2026 edition of the Spanish ‘Grande’, which is both a sporting consecration and a redemption and liberation for the Balearic cyclist.

Because if there is an expression that can summarize Mas’s trajectory until this Vuelta 2026, it is ‘finally’. Finally the rider who for years was close to winning a ‘Grande’ has been able to climb to the first step of the podium. Finally, that young man who burst into the elite with the reputation of a future winner of major races has turned part of that promise into reality. And finally the red jersey that he chased so many times, but never wore until the end, has ended up being his in Madrid.

Mas arrived at this Vuelta after having accumulated a track record that explained both expectations and criticism. His second place in the 2018 edition, accompanied by a stage victory, seemed to announce a career destined for the greatest conquests, but then another second place came in 2021, another in 2022 and a third in 2024 without ever finding a way to finish off one of those opportunities.

During those years, the Spaniard also became an uncomfortable cyclist for some of the fans. His good performances in the mountains were not always accompanied by attacks, and his tendency to control and watch his rival was often interpreted as excess caution or lack of ambition. But he could be among the best, but he was required to want to be the best, and that difference ended up feeding a label that was difficult to shake: that of the ‘yes, but no’ runner.

Expectations had been enormous since its emergence. That second place in the 2018 Vuelta, at only 23 years old, positioned him as one of the great projects of Spanish cycling and as one of the names called to one day fight for the Tour de France. Mas did not stop offering top-level results, with a fifth place in the 2020 Tour and a sixth in 2021, but he also did not manage to convert that consistency into the victory that his potential seemed to demand.

And along the way there were also blows that went far beyond a classification. In 2016 he suffered a fractured scaphoid after a fall in the Giro del Belvedere and in 2023 he fractured his scapula after a fall in the first stage of the Tour de France, while in 2025 thrombophlebitis in his left leg forced him to stay away from competition for months and once again tested his ability to return to the highest level.

Especially significant was the crisis he experienced in the 2022 Tour, when the fear of descents after several falls came to condition his performance and turned descents into a problem that could not be solved with his legs alone. That episode left a mark on a runner who was precisely accused of being excessively cautious, but Mas worked to regain confidence and continued looking for the version that seemed to always be within reach and, at the same time, always a little further away.

Even this 2026 had started far from the dream scenario that now almost closes the season. In the Giro he finished 32nd after coming with the ambition of fighting for the podium, a performance that provoked criticism and even a public suspension from his own manager, Eusebio Unzué, while his career in the Tour did not meet expectations and forced him to assume much more modest objectives.

And then La Vuelta arrived. The fall and subsequent abandonment of Tadej Pogacar completely modified a race that until then seemed aimed at a new exhibition for the Slovenian and allowed Mas, who had even dared to attack the great dominator of cycling today, to pick up a red jersey that, until then, seemed reserved for another rider, but that external circumstance only explains how the opportunity came and not how he managed to turn it into the biggest victory of his career.

Mas himself was the first to recognize it when he received the lead, aware that he had not won that jersey alone, but from then on he had to do what had been demanded of him for so many years: assume responsibility, accept the role of favorite and defend the position until Madrid, something he did accompanied by a Movistar Team that finally acted as the team that a contender to win a ‘Grande’ needed.

The telephone team controlled the race, protected their leader and set the pace when necessary so that Mas could take advantage of his best legs, in a collective demonstration that also explains the victory and that allowed him to face the decisive days without needing to look for heroics, but doing something that for years seemed to be missing: sealing an opportunity that was on his side.

VICTORY AFTER 16 ‘GREAT’

Because this time Mas did not stay at the doors. With eight professional victories before and during this season, but no general classification in a three-week race, the Spaniard had built a peculiar record, more related to opportunities than to the accumulation of victories, and in this Vuelta he has achieved two of his eight victories, including the most important of all, after also winning the ninth stage.

Disappointments are part of the journey, just like the four previous podiums in La Vuelta on the positive side of that scale, but precisely for this reason the 2026 victory has a special meaning. It does not erase the years of doubts nor does it suddenly make all the criticism unfair, but it does allow us to contemplate that career from a different perspective: But he is no longer the runner who could have won a ‘Grande’, but the runner who won it.

At 31 years old and after 16 participations in the three ‘Big Ones’ – Giro, Tour and Vuelta – the man from Artà has finally closed an account that had been open for too long. In his history there are abandonments, injuries, second places, days of blocking and performances below expectations, but also eight victories, five podiums in La Vuelta and a consistency that allowed him to remain for years among the best climbers in the world.

Now, however, all that is slightly displaced by an image that summarizes better than any classification what this victory has meant: that of a liberated Enric Mas, accompanied by his teammates and supported by a fan that for a long time demanded more of him and that now, finally, can recognize him for what he so often seemed to be on the verge of achieving.

Lap 26 does not turn Mas into another cyclist, but it does change the reading of his race forever, now that he can be closer to the end of it. The opportunity came after an unexpected circumstance, but he had to sustain it for the rest of the race and take it to Madrid, where that runner who had been singled out for years for looking too far back was able, this time, to look forward and take advantage of his best legs. Enric Mas is no longer the eternal contender. He is the winner, finally, of a ‘Grande’.